That was how most perceived the trade that sent Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Carl Gunnarsson to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Roman Polak. It was a move that essentially swapped a left-handed shot for a right-handed shot. It was change for the sake of change.

Polak might be bigger, more physical and slightly more experienced than Gunnarsson. But even though the Leafs gave up a third-round pick and retained about US$200,00 salary in the deal, general manager Dave Nonis admitted it wasn’t “a major overhaul.”

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More and more, it seems that the Leafs do not have the stomach for that.

This is a team that had one of the worst shot-differentials in the league and imploded in the final months of the season. But rather than blow things up and start fresh, the Leafs appear content with keeping the status quo.

Randy Carlyle? He’s coming back. There were rumours that the Florida Panthers wanted James van Riemsdyk in exchange for the No. 1 pick in this weekend’s draft. But the core of the Leafs remains off-limits for now. And help is not necessarily on the way either.

According to president Brendan Shanahan, “I don’t think July 1st is ever a great day to rely upon.” That being said, Shanahan wants to bring back David Bolland and reportedly has interest in signing 42-year-old Martin Brodeur to share the net with Jonathan Bernier.

And yet, management is somehow hopeful for a different outcome next season.

The Leafs are banking on young players, like Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly, to take another step forward and assume more responsibility. They expect that the Toronto Marlies, who advanced to the Calder Cup semi-final, will fill bottom-six roles at a bargain price. And they believe that the coaching staff, which will once again include Carlyle and as-yet-to-be-named new assistant coaches, will coax this team to be more competitive.

It’s a lot to ask. It’s maybe a little unrealistic. But the people in charge are under the assumption that this team’s problems are not as big as others suggest.

“We like our defence individually,” said Nonis, defending the Polak trade. “We didn’t necessarily like how they fit together last year. We wanted to move some pieces and change the look, rebuild it a little bit.”

To a degree, Nonis is correct. Players, such as Gardiner and Rielly, are trending upwards. They should improve and be capable of assuming more of a responsibility in the same way that James van Riemsdyk and Nazem Kadri took steps forward last season. But Nonis also realizes that it does not always work that way.

“Jake is going to have times where you guys sitting below me hear me smacking on the wall,” he said. “The fact is he’s got God-given ability you can’t teach. He’s getting the other part of the game under control. The last half of the season, the turnovers and the mistakes he was making earlier were decreasing. With the puck and creating offence, or carrying the puck out of the zone, he does it as well as anyone we have. He did come a long way.

“Morgan, his first year was excellent. We are hoping he improves next year. He may not. He might go through a year where he’s not quite ready to go up the lineup. We’re comfortable he’s going to get there. We’re going to give him an opportunity to get there.”

The decision to move Gunnarsson ultimately frees up a spot on the top pairing with Dion Phaneuf for either Gardiner or Rielly to play bigger minutes.

Nonis said that Polak, who averaged about 17 minutes in St. Louis, will likely slot in as the No. 4 or No. 5 defenceman, with Cody Franson and Tim Gleason as a potential third pairing. The Leafs also expect that minor-league defencemen Petter Granberg and Stuart Percy can compete for jobs out of camp.

“It clears some spots for them, but they still have to perform,” Nonis said of the young defence. “That’s the one thing we want to get back to, competition. There are still spots that are going to be up for grabs, and how much playing time you are going to get.

“It does take one quality guy off the left side. That is going to give more opportunity, but those guys have to earn it. We still have enough defence that if you’re not playing well, we’re going to bump you.”

The Leafs will now turn their attention to unrestricted free agency, where the team has spoken to about a half dozen players during the five-day negotiating window, but is also hoping to find similar value to what they received last season when they signed 19-goal scorer Mason Raymond to a one-year contract worth US$1-million.

“I’ve made it clear that I would like David Bolland to be on this team,” said Shanahan. “There are other players I like that leave an imprint on a game, that you remember playing against for whatever reason — skill, speed, tenacity, whatever it is … I’ve reached out to a couple personally.

“But like I said, you’ve got competition, you’ve got other teams that want those same players. I guess I’d be worried if I was reaching out to a player and he said no one else had called him. So there’s nothing definite.